'I have a B.A. in cellphones'
tim oliver
A recent study by Baylor University found that college students are spending nearly 9 hours a day on their smartphones. (Or as the cynic would say: What they aren't doing is studying!)
No surprise that texting is by far the activity they spend the most time on. Facebook ranked second.
Smartphone activity varies among the sexes. Women like Pinterest and Instagram. Men prefer games.
Other interesting numbers from the study:
10: avg. number of hours female college students report using their smartphones each day.
105: avg. number of minutes college women say they text each day.
90: number of text 1/3 of survey respondents said they send every day. Some send more. What they aren't doing is making a lot of phone calls. 79% say they make 0-5 calls per day.
The study concludes, "As the functionality of cell-phones continues to expand, addiction to this seemingly indispensable piece of technology becomes an increasingly realistic possibility...cell-phones can lead to dependence (as shown in the present study) and restrictions. Cell-phones have become inextricably woven into our daily lives – an almost invisible driver of modern life."
Or as another researcher wrote, cell-phone use is “possibly the biggest non-drug addiction of the 21 century.”
What does this have to do with the future of print? To be addressed in a future post.